TAM Sports ad tracking: Can it solve the cross-platform puzzle?

While some experts see TAM’s cross-platform push as a unified lens for sponsorship analytics, others view it less as a turning point and more as the start of a longer transition

by Aditi Gupta
Published: Apr 16, 2026 8:27 AM | 9 min read

As live sports audiences splinter across television screens, mobile apps and connected TVs, the biggest challenge for the industry is no longer reach, but clarity.

Who is watching, where are they watching and more importantly, how should that attention be valued? TAM Sports’ latest move to expand its advertising tracking across linear broadcast and digital streaming platforms steps directly into this gap, signalling a shift in how the industry may begin to reconcile fragmented viewership.

For years, advertisers and broadcasters have operated with parallel measurement systems that rarely intersect, even as consumption has become deeply intertwined. The result has been a growing mismatch between how sports inventory is sold and how it is actually consumed.

While some industry experts believe that by enabling cross-platform visibility, TAM is attempting to bring a more unified lens to sponsorship analytics, one that could reshape planning, evaluation and eventually, pricing, others believe that this is less a turning point and more the beginning of a longer transition, one that will test not just measurement capabilities, but the industry’s ability to align on what truly counts.

Avinash Pandey, Secretary General, IBDF, stated, “Any cross measurement of whether it is viewership or advertising is a welcome move. However, the science should be full proof and accepted by the industry bodies.”

What TAM Sports’ move really means

At one level, TAM Sports’ latest move to expand its tracking to include both linear TV and digital streaming (CTV and mobile) is a natural response to how sports consumption in India has evolved. Audiences are no longer confined to a single screen and major sporting events now play out simultaneously across broadcast and streaming platforms.

What this expansion does is bring advertisers, broadcasters and platforms closer to a unified view of sponsorship visibility. Instead of evaluating performance in silos, stakeholders can now begin to understand how campaigns behave across screens.

As Anshu Yardi, Vice President, Business Partnerships & Communications at TAM Media Research, explains, the shift will not be abrupt but evolutionary.

“On-ground this is likely to unfold as a gradual alignment rather than a sudden shift. Stakeholders will start by using cross platform visibility as a validation layer to understand what’s really happening across screens before fully integrating it into planning and evaluation. Over time, it should help bring more consistency in how performance is viewed, especially in fragmented sports consumption environments. But adoption will vary depending on how different players—i.e., broadcasters, streaming platforms, and brands—choose to operationalize it,” Yardi said.

How TAM is reworking ad measurement

According to industry sources, TAM’s expansion into cross-platform ad tracking reflects a shift from its earlier, more limited approach, where monitoring was largely restricted to specific sports leagues and select clients.

While linear TV measurement has traditionally been the domain of BARC, TAM is understood to have been tracking ad exposure across OTT and connected TV ecosystems for private clients over the past few years, with access to this data available through subscription-led offerings rather than broad public dissemination.

This now appears to be evolving, with a broader, commercially available solution being rolled out that spans OTT, CTV and mobile across multiple cities, particularly metros.

The system is expected to rely on monitoring panels and city level centres to capture ad occurrences and map them against defined audience cohorts such as age, gender or geography offering directional insights into how campaigns are distributed across target groups, platforms and events.

However, as the framework is based on occurrence tracking rather than audience measurement, it does not quantify how many people actually viewed an ad. As a result, while the data provides visibility into ad exposure patterns and audience alignment, it may not yet function as a comprehensive measurement currency comparable to linear TV metrics.

Until now, measurement in the sports advertising ecosystem has largely been platform-specific.

Linear television has relied on panel-based measurement systems to estimate viewership and ad exposure, while digital platforms have leaned on server-side data, platform analytics and campaign-level tracking. These systems operate independently, often making it difficult to reconcile performance across screens.

This fragmentation has been a long-standing issue, especially as sports viewing increasingly spans multiple devices. Advertisers buying a tournament today are effectively investing across TV, mobile and CTV, but measurement has not kept pace with this convergence, said experts.

That’s why TAM’s attempt to bridge these silos is being seen as a step forward—even if it doesn’t fully solve the problem.

As Pankaj Krishna, Co-Founder, Chrome OTT, puts it, “This is a step in the right direction and reflects the growing need to address fragmented sports consumption across screens. However, it also brings into focus a deeper structural challenge the industry has been grappling with for some time, the need to evolve measurement methodologies, not just expand coverage.”

He adds that simply stitching together datasets is not enough in a multi-screen world. “While cross platform tracking will certainly improve visibility, the real value will depend on how effectively it captures actual audience behaviour across devices. In a multi-screen ecosystem spanning CTV, mobile and desktop, measurement needs to move beyond stitched datasets to continuous, platform-agnostic capture of consumption, along with meaningful deduplication.”

What changes on the ground?

For advertisers, the biggest gain is better visibility. Cross-platform tracking allows them to understand duplication, reach and exposure across devices, something that has been difficult to measure accurately so far.

An industry expert summed up the sentiment, “Any tracking or any data/data mining is definitely helpful for the advertisers because they should know what is the ROI on each dollar that they are spending. So, if that is there, then it's good. I mean, even the broadcasters would come to know that what kind of viewership is there.”

For broadcasters and streaming platforms, this could mean greater transparency, both in terms of audience delivery and advertising clutter. Over time, it may also influence how inventory is packaged and sold.

However, the complexity of aligning different ad formats, delivery systems and viewing contexts remains a major hurdle.

As Yardi points out, “The biggest challenge is less about capability and more about standardization and comparability. Different platforms operate with different ad formats, delivery mechanics, and viewing contexts. Aligning these into a common, comparable framework without losing nuance is where the real complexity lies. There is also the practical aspect of scale and consistency across devices, especially when dealing with live content where timing, feeds, and ad insertions can and usually do differ.”

Will pricing of sports ads change?

One of the biggest questions is whether better measurement will lead to a shift in how sports advertising is priced.

The answer, for now, is: gradually.

Improved tracking could enable advertisers to move beyond broad reach metrics and focus more on quality of exposure, such as contextual relevance, clutter levels and competitive presence during key moments.

Yardi notes, “This level of tracking is likely to shape pricing over time, rather than trigger an immediate reset. Like we said, this is a gradual alignment and will not have any sudden changes to view. As visibility improves, pricing conversations may gradually shift from broad reach metrics to more granular indicators of presence and context. However, market dynamics, rights structures, and negotiation practices will continue to play a significant role.”

She also highlights the potential for more nuanced valuation.

“Greater transparency around clutter and contextual moments could definitely add a new layer to how value is perceived. Brands may begin to differentiate more between placements and not just based on reach, but also on quality of exposure and competitive environment (which TAM Sports covers and reports since the last 15+ years). That said, how strongly this translates into pricing shifts will depend on how consistently these insights are adopted across the ecosystem,” she said.

Krishna echoes a similar view, linking better measurement to a broader shift in monetisation.

“From a monetisation standpoint, improved granularity around reach, duplication, clutter and contextual moments has the potential to shift sports advertising from volume-led buying to more value- and attention-led pricing, particularly for premium inventory.”

Is this the beginning of a single measurement currency?

Despite the expansion, the idea of a unified measurement currency across TV and digital remains a longer-term ambition.

For now, the focus is on interoperability, getting different systems to “talk” to each other rather than replacing them entirely.

Yardi clarifies, “This is less about replacing existing systems and more about creating a more connected view of performance across platforms, which the industry can build on over time. What this enables in the near term is better interoperability between different measurement systems, which can help stakeholders make more aligned decisions. A single currency would require broader industry consensus, which typically evolves over time.”

Krishna, too, suggests that the future may not lie in a single-source solution.

“Given the complexity of the ecosystem, it is also likely that more interoperable approaches… integrating multiple data inputs will be needed to build a credible and widely accepted measurement framework, rather than relying on a single source view.”

The broader industry reaction suggests cautious optimism. While the move is widely welcomed, stakeholders are clear that credibility and acceptance will be key to its success.

The next phase will depend not just on how widely cross-platform tracking is adopted, but on whether it can evolve into a robust, standardized and trusted framework.